Suffering, yearning, envy, acceptance and gratitude. In a nutshell.
Those sound like the four horsemen of the apocalypse and their better angel, don’t they? I live in an area where there are winter days that sometimes don’t get below 57-60 Fahrenheit. We have a pool, which we installed eighteen years ago so that I could dip my post-polio body into it regularly, walk (which is hard for me [...]
Memorable holidays
Because I was raised in a Christian home, we celebrated all the holidays originated by early or later Christians (some traditions actually co-opted from Pagans, such as the wonder of a bright decorated tree, and celebrating this near the Solstice). Christmas, following my December birthday, is still my favorite. Now that I’m less religious, and married to a wonderful yet [...]
A letter from Daddy – 1951
A few months out of the hospital, late 1951 A letter from Daddy My niece died recently, of ALS. Going through things she had saved, I found a scrapbook my mother (her maternal grandmother) had started in the mid-1920’s, with lovely cards given to her by her first husband, my sister’s father. My niece would have said, “My [...]
What we leave behind
This past weekend, I spoke at the memorial service for my niece, who died a month ago and was one of my two closest blood relatives. It was good to have a few meals and time with some of the remaining members of my family and her friends, and I also spent several hours combing through various bits of my [...]
Mothers: the rose and the thorn
Recently I attended a Zoom meeting of one of my two women’s groups. The theme the facilitators chose was “Mothers—the Rose and the Thorn.” Ah, such an apt metaphor, I thought. We each had the opportunity to express from our hearts how our mothers, most of whom had passed long ago, had both the rose and the thorn in their [...]
Drive my car
Here’s an excerpt from my forthcoming book, No Spring Chicken: Stories and Advice from a Wild Handicapper on Aging and Disability. Some people may not know that the physical aspects of driving a car can be a challenge for a person with even partial paralysis. As a teenager and thereafter, I had to drive crossing my left leg in front [...]
Absence and the fond heart
Does absence make the heart grow fonder? I know this is usually an adage applied to romantic relationships, but I’ve had this on my mind in a general sense lately. I’ve been away from blogging for some time; I hope you’ve missed me, if you ever read me at all! I’ve been working on my second book, No [...]
Bias, Prejudice, Confession, Contrition, Foregiveness and Action – Part V
Part V Seeking forgiveness and acting for change I had the honor of visiting the Slave Market Museum in Charleston, South Carolina a few years ago. Seeing the paintings of how black people were chained into slave boats, lying down, several layers deep, as if they were not even human, and the painting of one slave woman being [...]